


Centuries From Yesterday

by vanillanemo



Category: Bleach
Genre: Ichigo protects and loves his dumb boyfriend, M/M, Scarring, Shinji is paranoid and perceptive, Time Travel, sort of DeAging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 21:23:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14777492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillanemo/pseuds/vanillanemo
Summary: But now? Nearly a century later? There was no reason for Urahara to look older again. To look that much older. That tired."Do you believe I'm capable of inventing time travel?"Day One of UraIchi Week 2018 - Time Travel





	Centuries From Yesterday

**Author's Note:**

> *shoves* the garbage will do  
> Many thanks to the anon commenter 'Animus' who suggested the title! A true life saver.

Okay, so maybe he'd been travelling the world for the last century. Maybe he'd only had cursory contact with Urahara over those years. Maybe things had happened that he didn't know about.

But it couldn't have been anything _that_ serious. Certainly nothing Aizen-related, they'd have been told already (Urahara owed them that, and much more). Nothing so drastic as to provoke this much of a change in the man.

But it was there.

With shinigami living as long as they do, aging as slowly as they do, its hard to guess how old any given person is. But you can see the weight of experience. Of pain.

(Shinji woke up, in a large rocky plain which he later learned was actually a basement, bound with kido and facing his friends who all looked so much older, not through growth or matured features or, Soul King forbid, _wrinkles_ , but through the weight of suffering.)

The whole eleven of them seemed older, having been exiled or fled from Soul Society, having had their coworkers, their allies, their _friends_ turn their backs on them.

But now? Nearly a century later? There was no reason for Urahara to look older again. To look _that_ much older. That tired.

He and Love had dropped in on the Shoten, the rest of the Visored still in France. Urahara had messaged them, said that they needed to consider coming back to Japan, that things were gearing up to kick off. Shinji hardly recognised him.

Gone was the cold, emotionless assassin, and the socially awkward captain. Gone was the eccentric candy shop owner with deep, dark secrets (which usually had secrets of their own) that he'd become over the last handful of decades.

Urahara greeted them with a tired, but genuine, smile. He made tea which was actually not disgusting (Shinji wanted to kiss whoever finally taught him that), and brought them up to speed. Experimental Hollows, Ichimaru Gin now the Captain of the Third, Shiba Kaien dead, Shiba Isshin powerless and half human (with kids, apparently!), and an army of Arrancar in Hueco Mundo. It seemed Aizen had been busy.

It also seemed like Urahara was hiding something.

The whole time, he kept shooting them not-so-discreet looks of what could only be described as relief. Maybe a little bit of hope flickering in the depths of his eyes, if Shinji looked right into them. His hands kept twitching, fluttering, unless they were wrapped around his teacup, clinging to it like a lifeline.

"Based on what Yoruichi-san's found out, it looks like Komamura Sajin is quite the well liked Captain. The Seventh Division seems to be running well."

Love nodded sagely. "Komamura-san was a good kid, with a lot of potential. I'd been a bit worried that he'd let his anxiety get to him but its nice to hear that he hasn't. Who's his lieutenant, do you know?"

"Iba Tetsuzaemon, Chikane-san's son. She's retired, and I think the current 3rd Division lieutenant is the fourth one since her? Maybe the fifth."

Nervous twitch in the hands. Kisuke's either definitely hiding something or an imposter - given Aizen's abilities, that's a terrifying possibility.

"Who's the poor bastard stuck serving under that little shit?"

Eyes shifting, a flicker of... guilt? Concern. Worry. Shinji couldn't name it, but by all rights it shouldn't be there.

"Kira Izuru. Graduated from the Academy a few decades ago, had a stint in both the Fifth and Fourth Divisions before being picked up by Ichimaru."

"So who's taken Ichimaru's lieutenant position in the Fifth?"

Hands twitching again, and... his reiatsu was fluctuating. Not enough that Shinji would have noticed if he wasn't monitoring it, but he was, and he noticed. Yoruichi-san would be ashamed.

"Hinamori Momo. Classmate of Kira-fukutaicho. Excels in kido."

Shinji decided that was enough.

"Okay Urahara-san, cut the bullshit. You know something big. Something you're not telling us. What is it?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Shinji noticed Love startle. Obviously he hadn't noticed the change.

Urahara sighed. "I honestly thought I was going to get away with it there for a moment. Obviously not. Too many centuries out of the Onmi." Centuries? It hadn't even yet been one!

Urahara leant forward slightly, steepling his fingers. "Do you believe I'm capable of inventing time travel?"

"Christ, were you even going to bother easing them into it?" An unknown voice, young, likely male. Coming from the northwest corner, behind the thin paper barrier. There was no visible shadow, but between the hallway light and the light here in the sitting room, that was to be expected. Shinji was on his feet, Sakanade drawn in a heartbeat, Love only one more behind him.

"I saw no reason not to be upfront. We trust Shinji-san and Love-san, I know damn well Aizen has no cameras or other listening devices here, and you're still invulnerable to his illusions - you know he's not here in person. Might as well rip the metaphorical bandaid off. Now, come out from there and introduce yourself. They haven't met you yet, remember?"

The door slid open, to reveal a child, probably only seven, maybe eight. He lifted his hands to show he was unarmed, though he wore a wakizashi sheathed at his side. He had a bright shock of orange hair and wide brown eyes, and wore a plain navy blue haori over jeans and a t-shirt with some kids' show logo Shinji didn't recognise on it.

He bowed low. "My name is Kurosaki Ichigo. I'm Shiba Isshin's oldest child. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Urahara-san? Why do you have a tiny child listening in on conversations?" Love asked.

"The short version?" Kisuke took a sip of his tea as the kid wandered over to sit next to him. "Aizen revealed himself to Soul Society, murdering Central 46 and attacking multiple Gotei 13 officers, including his own lieutenant. Then there was a war. It lasted over two centuries, and ended badly. But, on the rare occasion I manage to work _with_ Mayuri-san, rather than argue, we manage amazing things. In this case, time travel. Ichigo, who was the one to eventually kill him, and I came back in time to stop Aizen before things escalate to the point of him being immortal and almost unkillable. We arrived about a month ago. Ichigo's listening in because he's most likely the one who will need to take out Aizen this time around too."

"Why him? Why does he deserve it? And why does he need to?" Shinji was _ever so slightly_ angry. This tiny little scrap of a kid was supposed to be the one to defeat Aizen? He barely came up to Shinji's waist. He definitely wouldn't come up to Kensei's or Rose's.

"Lose the gigai, Ichigo. Shinji-san, I'm sure you remember how Aizen's shikai works? One has to have seen it release to fall under the illusions? Ichigo has never seen it. Aizen's bankai is a different story entirely, but we're hoping we'll stop him before he gets that desperate."

The words went in through one ear and out the other as Shinji gaped at the man who had exited the tiny gigai, which was now placed in the back corner. Tall, lanky and scarred beyond belief, in a tattered shihakusho and captain's haori, he looked at Shinji with a weariness that spoke of battle, and loss.

"Kisuke's told you why I need to. And as to why I deserve to? My dad and sisters were both murdered by Aizen, my mother's death was the result of Aizen's machinations, my cousin was killed by one of Aizen's plots, and then he took down my _entire fucking Clan_ , and every Clan beholden to them, over four hundred people. All dead, because of Aizen. And my fucked-up-ness and Inner Hollow is all his fault too."

"You have an Inner Hollow?" Love asked, sitting back down. Shinji followed suit warily, but still kept Sakanade unsheathed over his lap.

Kurosaki smiled softly. "Yeah, he's an overprotective asshole who thinks he's top shit, and he is. He's great. The regenerative abilities I've got from him have saved my ass more times than I can count."

"Wait, you get along with your Inner Hollow?"

"Yeah. I didn't at first, but we sorted it out eventually."

"How long can you keep your mask on?"

"The longest I've ever managed was approximately twenty days, fourteen hours, though I wasn't keeping exact time. And that didn't tire me out - I had no noticeable depletion of reiatsu. Kisuke suspects I can keep it on indefinitely."

Love let out a long whistle. "Indefinitely? Wow. Do you have any extra abilities from your Hollow?"

Kurosaki and Love engaged in conversation about cero, hierro and instant regeneration, but Shinji was more interested in Urahara. The man was leaning into Kurosaki, ever so slightly, and the nervous fluttering of fingertips had stilled. The tension had left his shoulders, and his eyes had softened around the edges. There was even the hint of a smile on his face, something soft and loving that was so unfamiliar on his face but looked so right.

There was something between Urahara and Kurosaki, and it had healed the man of centuries worth of blood on his hands.

Shinji wholeheartedly approved.

"So," he said, during a lull in the conversation. "You gave us the short version. When do we get the long one?"

"Once all eight of you are here. We're already going to have to do it multiple times as is, I'd prefer to limit it as much as possible. It shouldn't be too bad with you lot, you've already a bit of background information on the matter which the Gotei 13 won't have, but we've still got two centuries to cover, and a lot happened in those centuries," Urahara answered smoothly.

Shinji nodded thoughtfully. "I'll call the others. We'll need a hand with getting set up here."

"Already done."

"The same as you did for us your first time around?"

"No." Urahara's voice was flat, his eyes haunted. Kurosaki reached out and took his hand, tanned fingers curling over paler ones.

"We considered it," he said, "But we took a walk past the old place and... well, it hurt too much. I watched that place burn with Kensei-san and you, Shinji. Kisuke helped us retrieve..." He took a deep breath, clearly steeling himself. "Lisa. He helped us retrieve what was left of Lisa. We couldn't bring ourselves to have anything more to do with that place. We've found a house about a fifteen minute walk away from here. Far enough that you can have your space, but close by if you need us or we need you. You've an underground training area that the three of us - me, Kisuke and Tessai-san - have thoroughly warded, so you can let loose without any worries of being caught out. If you wanna change or add to the wards, that's cool, but we've developed a couple to keep out Aizen's camera flies, so probably get Hachi to come talk to Kisuke. You'll need to be careful when out and about regarding letting your Hollow out, not only does Aizen have camera flies everywhere, there's a couple of active Quincy around."

"Fair enough. Do you think the Quincy will be much of a threat even without knowing 'bout the Hollow?"

"Well, considering they're my mum, my uncle, my great uncle and my cousin, no, no really. Uryuu's seven and only just learning, Ryuuken-ji's all for ignoring the spiritual world, Soken-jii-san is actually interested in brokering peace with the shinigami, I think he'd be quite open minded about Visored, and considering my mum was infected with a Hollow that she then passed onto her part shinigami child, I think she's pretty open minded too. But if any of them think you're a threat to humans, they'll try and take you out. Keep Hiyori on a short leash."

"Always have, always do, probably always will. I'll go make that call then. And Kurosaki-san? Take care of Kisuke-kun, won't ya? He's been working so hard over the last few decades already, and I don't doubt he's been continuing to do so. He deserves a bit of a break, so you make sure he gets one, yeah?"

Lips curved into a soft smile, and Kurosaki nodded as he replied. "Always have, always do, always will."


End file.
